Down the Rabbit Hole
Down the Rabbit Hole is the fifth episode of ''LOST: The Next Generation'''s first season. It was originally broadcast on on September 5, 2010. Ned brings along Marcus and Summer in an effort to track down Annie. Meanwhile, Emily struggles with her mental condition and Roz deals with heavy amounts of guilt just as her past comes creeping back to haunt her. Flashbacks explore the many relationships in Ned's life and how exactly he wound up on the cruise. Read the script here. Synopsis Previously on LOST * Roz tells Leigh about Mats' gun, and Leigh relays this message to Ned. * Dominic leads Summer and Marcus to the Swan crater, where he finds a backpack containing a doctor's report about Mats, revealing that Mats is a perscribed sociopath. * Ned and Leigh interrogate Mats about the book and they threaten to burn ''Encounter at Far Point'', causing him to break and tell them that Annie has been on the Island but he's never set foot on it before. * Annie is looking over her doll and Katy tells Annie the man in the jungle told her that they were ready for her. * Ned arrives back to the beach and asks Zhen where Annie is. Roz begs to know where Katy is and horror overcomes Ned's face. * Whispers surround Katy and Annie as Annie leads the young girl off in the jungle. Katy looks worried, but Annie simply smiles. Flashbacks Ned is listening to his son Austin read chapter one, Down the Rabbit Hole, of the book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. Austin stumbles a bit, and Ned makes note at how he's making progress with his dylsexia, telling him that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of his favorite books. Austin jokingly tells Ned he's enjoyed the paragraphs he's read so far, telling him that he's tired. Ned wishes his son goodnight and leaves his room. Ned retreats into his art studio, where he begins painting a picture of a young boy sleeping in his bed. His wife Hallie enters and notes the resemblance of the boy to Austin. They discuss Hallie's current pregnancy and joke around about their unborn daughter's name, settling on the name 'Julie Fiona Pilgrim'. Hallie notes that she's having a few stomach pains, Ned shows his concern, but Hallie shakes it off as just cramps. As Ned finishes the painting, he asks Hallie to add on the "finishing touches" and she grabs a marker and draws a smiley face in the corner of the painting. While cooking lunch one day, Ned notices Hallie looking very much in pain. He asks if she's okay and she suddenly begins to bleed through her skirt. She fears the worst and Ned rushes her out of the house, promising her that nothing will happen to their daughter. Austin tries to come with them, but Ned refuses, yelling at him and telling him to stay home. At the hospital, Ned waits patiently for any news in the waiting room while his sister Alice storms in, with Austin by her side. She berates Ned for leaving Austin alone, Ned explains that he was panicking and couldn't wait for Austin to get ready to go because of the situation's urgency. Austin asks his father if everything will be okay, and Ned promises that Hallie and Julie will be alright. Alice pulls Ned aside and tells him "Never give out promises you can't keep". Sometime after, Ned and Hallie have lost their child and Hallie has slipped into a state of depression. Ned sneaks out of bed one night to paint in his studio, Hallie enters and tells him she was scared being in bed alone. Ned consoles her, telling her that there's nothing to be afraid of, promising he will always be there for her. Hallie tells him that she's feeling ill and Ned asks her seriously if she's taken her pills. Hallie admits that she hasn't, hating how the pills make her feel, but Ned urges her to take them so she can feel better, telling her that losing Julie has affected the whole family. Hallie just tells him she's going back to bed. Ned asks her if she wants to put on the "finishing touches" but she tells him she doesn't feel like it, returning back to bed. After working a late shift at the school he teaches at, Ned tries to call Hallie but she doesn't answer. He arrives home to find the place trashed, Hallie gone, and Austin in a state of shock. Austin tells Ned that "they" took her, Ned demands to know who but Austin tells him he has no idea. Ned goes to call the police, consoling his son and promising that he will find Hallie. A month following Hallie's disappearance, Ned finds himself depressed and unable to move on. He watches their wedding video one night, painting a beautiful portrait of he and Hallie exchanging their kiss when Austin walks in. Austin tells his dad that he needs to move on, that he needs someone to be there for him, to help him deal with his mother's disappearance and that Ned isn't any help. Taking his son's suggestion to heart, Ned books a ticket on a cruise ship and drops Austin off at his sister Alice's house. Ned promises Alice it will be a week-long cruise and he will return to pick up Austin after it's complete, saying he just needs some time alone to think about things. He promises to his son that he will be back in a week. They exchange hugs and Ned tearfully leaves for his cruise. On the Island After bridging the connection between Annie and Katy's disappearances, Ned blows up on Roz for not paaying enough attention to Katy as she was the one watching her at the time. Leigh attempts to calm him down, and he storms into his tent, grabbing his backpack. Ned tied up Mats, who watches intently as Ned takes Mats' gun and tells Leigh that when he finds Annie, and if she refuses to give up Katy, he will kill her. Mats tells Ned that wouldn't be a good idea, telling Ned that Annie's the only person that has any idea what's going on. Ned goes off to leave, telling Leigh he needs her to stay at the beach because he needs someone he can trust to watch over Mats. Leigh tells Mats he did a good job covering his friend's ass, but he says what he told her was true, and that if Ned kills Annie, any answers they want die with her. Leigh tells him she doesn't want answers, she wants to leave the Island, and Mats says the only way out is death. Marcus leads his group back to the beach, and Ned tells him about Katy. Summer and Marcus tell Ned that they want to help him find them, Summer says she has some tracking skills. Ned allows them to join him, while Dominic comes over with the backpack he found, pulling out the doctor's report detailing Mats' sociopathy while describing the Swan crater he found the backpack by. Ned asks Dominic to tell Leigh about the doctor's report and take Zhen to the Swan crater. As Ned, Summer, and Marcus head off, Dominic tells Leigh about Mats' sociopathy. In the jungle, Ned explains to Summer and Marcus about Mats and Annie's possible involvement in the crashing of their cruise. He asks Summer if she has found any trail yet, she denies it. Ned starts to doubt her tracking skills, but Summer reassures him by telling him that she quit school in order to travel and do volunteer work throughout Africa and Asia, where her time in China and Vietnam required her to learn hunting and tracking skills. Marcus tries to joke around by saying Summer's parents probably didn't like that she dropped out of school, but she replies by saying that most dead people don't have a say in things. Marcus apologizes, but Summer says it's okay, recognizing that he was only trying to start conversation. Summer notices Marcus' notepad and sees him marking stuff in it. She makes a sly joke about him writing the first chapter of the Summer St. Clair biography. Marcus explains he's been keeping track of the days and shows her that they crashed on the Island on June 13, 2025 and it's currently June 16th. Summer is in disbelief that it's been four days already. She stops suddenly and finds tracks. Ned, who has been walking at a faster pace, backtracks and joins the two of them. Summer shows him a trail leading up a hill. Ned is about to head through the trail but Summer stops him, saying it's highly possible that Annie tried covering her tracks with dummy trails. Marcus agrees, advising that it would be wise if they looked around for any other possible trails before jumping the gun on this one since it'd have been smart of Annie to try throwing them off with other trails. Jonathan leads Theo and Emily back to the beach, where Roz greets them, expressing worry at Jonathan's lengthy disappearance. Theo is about to mention Katy when Roz immediately explains what happened and apologizes. Theo fails to keep his cool and Jonathan tries to calm him down, saying that this petty arguing won't bring Katy back. Jonathan asks to know where Ned is and Roz tells him he took Summer and Marcus to the jungle to go find Katy. Theo and Emily decide to leave as well, but Jonathan stops them, telling Theo it's not smart to go out in the jungle alone when there's already a search party looking for Katy. He advises him to stay at the beach before he walks off down the beach, where he's hounded by curious survivors. Emily suddenly panics and runs down the beach, leading Theo to chase her off. Roz gathers blankets and water for Leigh, who's watching over a tied-up Mats. Mats tries to strike conversation with Roz, though Leigh won't allow it. Roz insists to let her talk to him, and Leigh eventually caves in and lets them have their privacy. Roz asks him where Annie is, he tells her that taking Katy was never part of their plan and that she's doing this for herself. Roz tries to get Mats to trust her, but Mats says she's not quite sure he can, mentioining how she ran right to Leigh about the gun, how quick she was to let it slip about the name "Shephard" in the caves, and finally mentioning something that happened 'back in London', saying she's got quite the track record. Roz is shaken, she demands to know how Mats knew about London, Mats tells her he knows a lot of things. She asks him what happens now and he signals for her to lean in. He whispers something in her ear. Roz calls Leigh back to Mats, Leigh asks if he said anything and Roz tells her "Nothing at all" before walking down the beach, looking a bit shaken. In the jungle, Emily is looking through the wreckage for her pills, telling Theo she is running low and says the fact she hasn't taken her pills in a while is why Mike appearaed to her in the jungle. She explains she brought more bottles but needs to find her luggage, saying she only has five pills left in her current bottle. Theo says Zhen's got luggage down at the beach and that he'll look there. Emily tries to comfort Theo about Katy, telling him it's not his fault she was kidnapped, saying if anyone can find her, it'd be Ned. Annoyed by Ned's depiction as a superhero all the time, Theo heads back to the beach leaving Emily to sort through the wreckage alone. Ned, Summer, and Marcus go down the original path they found after finding no possible dummy trails. Summer asks Ned why he's taking this so seriously, he says that he was an art teacher and that having Katy kidnapped is like having a student snatched right from the classroom, saying she's his responsibility so he needs to find her. Summer questions whether or not Katy is in fact his responsibility. Ned retorts by saying, as the only person to take on the position as leader, everyone in the camp is his responsibility. Summer makes note of some strange tracks in the ground as a boar suddenly charges at them. Ned pulls Mats' gun on the boar, but it nicks him in the knee, sending Ned to the ground and the gun flying. Summer snatches the gun and fires three shots at the boar, killing it instantly. Ned and Marcus are shocked by Summer's excellent accuracy and precision with the gun, but Summer turns the tables on Ned by asking where he got the gun from. He explains that it was Mats' and Summer hands it back to him. Marcus and Summer are concerned over Ned's wound but he insists on moving on. Dominic leads Zhen to the Swan crater, talking about Annie, and discussing the backpack Dominic found at the crater. Zhen questions why Dominic is defending Annie, Dominic explains that Annie helped him out when he was at his lowest ebb and he knows she's a good person. Zhen mentions how she has enough trust issues without knowing that "Mats Lindgren of Kalmar County" is a sociopath. Zhen seems to be trying to exploit Dominic's flaws, so Dominic tries to exploit her's but she gets defensive saying that she had to go through things that she would "never wish upon anyone." They finally reach the Swan carter and Zhen begins to go through the things inside, finding an old artifact with a DHARMA logo on it, questioning what DHARMA is. They hear rustling in the bushes above and they climb up to find Annie in the bushes, crying. She tells them bitterly, between her tears, that "they" took Katy but left her. Emily continues to rifle through the wreckage when Theo returns, saying that Roz helped him find her luggage. He hands it to her, and she's very thankful. The two embrace. Ned continues trudging along through the jungle while Marcus expresses his concern over Ned's wound, saying they should head back. Ned remains adamant about finding Katy. Summer defends Ned, saying she doesn't want to have come all this way for nothing. They hear something approaching them, and Marcus sees that it's a woman with red hair... Ned recognizes her as his wife, Hallie! Ned is shocked by his wife's appearance, begging to know where she's been all these years. Hallie says that she's been on the Island, where she, where he, and where all of them belong. She says that she's done her work on the Island, and that it's time for Ned to do his work. She requests to talk to Ned alone, taking him away from Summer and Marcus, deeper into the jungle. Ned is still shocked by all of this, demanding to know what happened to her but Hallie ignores his question, she tells him that if he wants them to be reunited, he has to listen to what she has to say. Summer and Marcus wait for Ned, and he comes out of the foliage, looking determined. They demand to know what happened, and Ned tells them that Hallie won't be joining them, "for now at least", that he has to "do something first". Winning banners See here. Trivia *The episode has multiple allusions to the novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. This mirrors the LOST episode (also the fifth episode of the first season and the first centric episode for the show's de facto leader) White Rabbit, which also references the same novel. **The title itself is named after the novel's first chapter, Down the Rabbit Hole. An excerpt from this chapter is read by Austin in the opening scene and the chapter is referenced in dialogue by Zhen. ***Ned's sister, Alice, is named after the novel's protagonist. Unanswered Questions *What "exciting things", as referenced in this episode, happened to Summer during her travels through Asia and Africa? *Is there any significance to the notepad Marcus carries around? *What happened 'back in London' that leaves Roz shaken at any reference to it? *What did Mats whisper in Roz's ear? *Did Annie really plant the backpack? *Why does Zhen have trust issues? *What horrible things did Zhen go through that she would "never wish upon anyone"? *Why did the Others abandon Annie but take Katy? *What happened to Hallie? Was she really kidnapped or is there more to it? *If it was kidnapping, why was she kidnapped in the first place? *What "work" did Hallie do on the Island? *What does Ned have to do in order to be supposedly reunited with Hallie? Category:Ned centrics